Go West: The Growth of Bollywood

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Go West: The Growth of Bollywood

This paper builds insight into how globalization impacts cultural clusters,
through a case study of Bollywood, the Indian film cluster in Mumbai. The
paper’s analysis of the recent growth and consolidation of Bollywood, as well as
the cluster’s development of a new film formula, illustrates that globalization
does not necessarily entail westernization of culture. Instead, the paper suggests
that early-mover advantages held by the world’s core cultural clusters may be
eroded by globalization, as it creates pipelines of information, talent and capital,
allowing hitherto peripheral cultural clusters to access export markets and
develop exportable products. Analyzing the role of the Indian diasporas for the
export growth of Bollywood, the paper also offers a discussion of the difference
between two different aspects of globalization: Global flows of people and global bridgeheads of people.